Social Homes

Links

Search

Yes, as a matter of fact, that is Iggy Pop’s high school photo with a goofy crown on top adorning a sumptuously glazed mug. How did THAT happen?! Well, I bought a small electric kiln and I’m doing an extra firing with low-fire custom ceramic decals. And today is the world premier of this new line of work. There are over twenty of these pieces for sale right now in the “Photo Decal Pots” section of my online store. They are selling for just $32.00 each which is really good considering that each one is unique. Please buy them! I really want to make more. I’ll just post the pics of my favorites below. Stay tuned, as this is the start of a whole new direction in my work!

This is legendary folk potter, George Ohr. He’s one of my all-time heroes in clay, hence the initials that stand for What Would George Ohr Do?

I just can’t seem to get away from this Tesla and unicorns thing!

This is the iconic image of our dearly departed cat, Moocher. He was the Che Guevara of all felines.

Here’s punk rock legend Iggy Pop at two distinct phases of his life.

And here’s another rock star who had a significant heyday in the 1970s!

And these little espresso cups are such wonderful collector’s items! They sell for just $24.00 each. They surely will sell soon, right?

It’s been almost two months since my last blog post where I announced that we reached an agreement with Tesla Motors and my copyright issue over the farting unicorn graphic was happily resolved. Tweeted by Elon Musk, that post got 53,000 visits the day it was posted. Since then, my assistants and I have been cranking out A LOT OF POTS and we’re almost caught up on all the orders I received from the June-July media blitz. On August 29th, I was part of a panel discussion at The Denver Press Club on copyright issues and art. It was great fun to discuss this topic with Tim Atkinson (lawyer), Lauri Murphy (artist/educator) and John Lebya (photojournalist). This week my interview with Paul Blais on The Potter’s Cast podcast goes up on Tuesday. I’m a huge fan of Paul’s podcast. His mission is to help those of us in the clay community refine our business skills. It was such an honor to be on his show. We discussed my copyright issue with Tesla and my forty years as a professional potter.

The past four months have been a productive, exciting and wild time and my only complaint is that I wish I’d had more time this summer to produce new work and pitch it to my old fans and new customers. This Tesla copyright adventure has been a real turning point in my career and it has totally rejuvenated my spirit as an artist. Now that all the magic unicorn dust is settling, I’m making plans to try a lot of new ideas and to not hold back on my ambitious creative ideas. This week I’m ordering a new electric kiln so I can launch into the ceramic decal process. It’s going to take a while to get this off the ground but look for new work in this style to come out in November.

I did get a couple of new mug designs out of my last firing and they are available in my online store. “It’s my birthday and I don’t have to be nice to you.” was inspired by punk song I wrote in a weird dream I had while on vacation in Croatia a couple of years ago. You can buy it in my online store.

And for all you unicorn fans, we’ve got a new art mug that delves into the dark side of unicorn folklore. This is a limited edition art mug and we have just two left in stock. Jump on over to my online store to catch one of these:

I am happy to report that we have reached an agreement with Tesla that resolves our issues in a way that everyone feels good about! It’s clear there were some misunderstandings that led to this escalating, but I’m just glad that everything has been cleared up. I’ve always been a Tesla fan, and I’m looking forward to getting back to making pots and selling them in my online store.

I’d also like to announce today is that I will be designing a mural for the “Arts Bridging The Gap’s LA Street Art Initiative in Los Angeles, CA. Their mission is “to bring top quality arts programs and experiences to children in underserved communities in order to improve their quality of life, academic success and future prospects.” Their murals are painted by underserved youth and LAPD officers! They approached me last week about doing a unicorn mural possibly in Hawthorne, CA near SpaceX headquarters. I grew up in this part of Los Angeles and my father and stepfather both worked in aerospace and defense industries in this very neighborhood. I’m excited about designing a happy, fun work of art for the community.

It’s been a week of madness and magic here at the Wallyware studio, and if I were to pick the one moment that sums up the surreality of it all, it would be Wednesday at 4:30 in the afternoon when I was filling my car with gas and Robin (aka Lisa Prank) texted me this tweet from JK Rowling. I hadn’t yet seen The Guardian article that put my copyright battle with Tesla Motors into the stratosphere of worldwide public opinion, and my jaw literally dropped. From that moment on it was a really wild ride of media buzz the likes of which us non-wizard clay-covered potters never see. And it’s still going strong at the time of this posting.

Welcome to my crazy little pottery business. I’ve got some unicorn art I’d like to show you. My famous unicorn mug is for sale here, and there are also some really unusual one of a kind pieces available too, as well as over four hundred other pots with cartoons on them. The one of a kind items in my store are all inventory controlled so if it says it’s not sold, it’s in stock and ready to ship. The unicorn mug that started it all is backordered until mid-July, but there is lots of other unicornalia still in stock. They can all be found in the “Here’s where you can buy the Farting Unicorn Pots!” section of my store.

This nine inch bowl is probably my favorite piece in the series and as of early this morning it hasn’t sold yet. It’s a real steal at just $65.00 plus shipping.

Why hasn’t anybody bought these two yet?!!! They are totally amazing and just $50.00 each plus shipping.

At just $45.00 this 9 inch plate is such a deal! I think it must have gone up in value at least 500% in the last few days, but I’m such a humble artist and stupid business person, I’m keeping it at the original asking price.

It’s such a thrill to have people from all over the world enjoying my artwork right now. I urge you all to go see more than just the unicorn stuff. I’ve been making pots for a living for forty years now, and my body of work is really something. Thanks for visiting!

And last but not least, here are the three amazing women that rode that crazy tweet storm with Mr. Musk on Wednesday night. They were in Seattle doing the first show of the new Who Is She? tour. Apparently they were backstage all night laughing like crazy as they tweeted some real zingers about tech bros, rocket launches and copyright law. I’m so proud to have Julia, Robin and Bree on my social media team!

This picture was taken 40 years ago, the very month that I started my career as a professional potter. I had already plunked down first and last month’s rent for studio space at Santa Barbara Ceramic Design and was working part time in the freshman orientation program at UCSB, a job that was slated to end in September. Making pottery for a living was my “run away and join the circus” plan for avoiding getting a real job. It was actually a pretty good idea because I had just gotten a degree in art history and the economy in 1978 was absolutely horrible. It was the era of gasoline shortages and high interest rates, not a great time to start a pottery manufacturing business. I was really lucky to be able to spend all that time during those early years learning the skills that have carried through my career as a potter.

So in the spirit of nostalgia, I’m going to show you some of my favorite pots that I’ve made over the past four decades. Many of these items are still part of my line and for sale in my online store. I present them here in random order, because to do a ranked “top twenty” for art would be a difficult process.

This is one of the most enduring designs I’ve ever come up with. I made the first one back in 1985, and when it came out of the kiln I knew I had a big hit on my hands (pun intended). It’s a consistent best seller, and is the epitome of the goofy jokester persona that my work emulates. You can find it in the funny bowls section of my online store.

Wally fans, don’t despair! Your favorite cartoon dog is making the list right now with this classic design that, for me, epitomizes the perfect hot selling coffee mug. I’ve always said that any coffee mug with a joke about coffee will sell well, but this one is truly genius. And I’ve got them in stock right now in the Wally Mugs section of my online store.

Similarly, I think this is just about the best cat bowl in the world because the joke is so odd and spot on for describing the feline psyche. These really never sold that well (WHY?!!!) but I like this concept a lot. They are still part of my line, but maybe not forever. You can find them in the cat bowls section of my online store.

Here’s the first pot I ever made with a cartoon on it! It was a Fathers’ Day gift for my dad way back in 1982 after we did a family field trip to Northrop, where my dad was in charge of developing the software system for the MX Missile. Ahhhh…. it’s the plate that launched my entire focus for decades to come. You can read more about it in the “About the Artist” section of this site. Thanks, Dad!!!!

And last but not least for this first half of the trip down memory lane, I present the most labor intensive bowl in my line! You can buy them here and you can see an entire photo essay on how they are made here. A couple of weeks from now, I’ll post the second half of this list. Stay tuned!

I just rolled out a kiln load where 95% of the pots are cartoon free. Why? I had always wanted to burn through all the odds ‘n ends bisque ware that accumulated throughout the years. An experiment with an asymmetrical cup and plate set like the one above seemed like a good idea when I threw it, but I never really got around to seeing it through to the end. Pots like that can tend to haunt you as time goes by and they were messing with the feng shui of my workspace. The past two weeks has been a blur of glazing up all the odd little orphans and finally getting them finished. The firing turned out really nice and the glaze surfaces are excellent. You can now see over sixty one of a kind items from this series in my online store in a new section appropriately called, “The Odds ‘N Ends Firing”. They are all one of a kind items and reasonably priced in the $12 to $60 range. The ones below are some of my favorites.

Sometimes I like to think that my job is producing cryptic objects that will confound insect art historians millions of years in the future. When all the wood, metal and computer hard drives have decomposed, it’s the sinks, toilets and coffee mugs that will be the final record of our civilization. Exhibit A: “WTF happened to the United States of America?!!” started as a challenge I made to myself to come up with a Stormy Daniels joke. I really like the way this cartoon captures the way so many of us feel about how our once great democracy has turned into one big weird reality TV show these days.

Exhibit B: My better instincts came up with this next mug, which grew out of the fact that I’ve been to two political marches already in 2018. This is rare for me as I’m not much of a marcher. They take too much time and leave me feeling insignificant and futile. And I really hate chanting dumb slogans in unison with strangers. I’m much more of a “letter to the editor” or “make a soapbox coffee mug” kind of guy. This design has gotten rave reviews from my fans and galleries, and I’m pretty sure we’re going to be making a lot more of them this year.

Exhibit C: The insect art historians are going to have a tough time with this one, because I don’t completely understand it myself. Suffice to say it’s a mashup of two iconic sci-fi shows, X-Files and Westworld. I know I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out whether or not the world we live in is really real anymore. How about you? All three of these new designs can be found in the “Funny Mugs” section of my online store.

Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Rudy, Stormy, Kanye and Ted mugs!

Here’s a crazy story. Back in 1994, I got this strange idea to stash away some Wally mugs for people in the distant future to see. I didn’t set a date for their unveiling and I didn’t hide them in the foundation of a building under construction. They were simply packed away in boxes and stuck under a table in my studio.

I unpacked those boxes this week and took quite a trip down memory lane. All told, there are 80 mugs with a wide variety of designs. I’m putting them all on sale this Tuesday, and I’m kicking my thirty-something self for not making more of the Tonya Harding and OJ Simpson trial mugs. These pieces have real nostalgic value. I suspect they will sell out quickly because I only made two of each.

As we dig deeper into this odd collection, there is some strange, horribly dated and downright demented stuff. I don’t know why I made so many atrocious jokes about disgraced Oregon Senator Bob Packwood. I suspect it was because Twist, my #1 gallery at the time was in Portland, Oregon and Bob Packwood jokes were hot back then. Fun fact for all Wally fans: Wally’s dad is a human!

But the real magic of this treasure trove of Wallialia are the odd mugs that I made just for the hell of it to freak out and confound my fans of the future. You and me, right here, right now are those fans. I love the little messages that I wrote on the bottom of each mug. They are so sweet, genuine and revealing.

So now it’s my chance to feel like a ticket agent selling tickets to an epic rock concert. At 6 a.m., MST all of these mugs will go on sale for just $15.00 each. You can preview them now in the “Vintage Wally Mugs” section of my store. Here are a few important tips and disclaimers:

-These mugs are a little smaller than my current mugs. They are about a half an inch shorter and hold 8 ounces instead or 10 ounces. I guess the world was a smaller place 23 years ago.

-All of these items are inventory controlled, so my store won’t sell more than two of each. I haven’t tested my online store under “waves of people ordering all at once” conditions. The process of me switching these pots from “NOT FOR SALE” to “IN STOCK” is a bit untested so there might be some snafus at first. If you can’t buy something at 6:03 a.m., it’s probably because of a technical problem, not because thousands of customers are gleaning the store all at once. Try again, you’ll probably get what you want.

-The messages on the bottoms of the pots aren’t guaranteed as I made two of each and wrote different messages on each mug. If you are the first to buy a design, you will get the message you see in the store. If you are the second person to buy that mug, you will probably get a different message.

-If we are indeed sold out of a design and you really want that design, fear not. You can simply order a mug with that design and I’ll get it in the next firing and ship it out the first week in May. Re-makes cost the standard mug price of $28.00.

I’m really excited about this whole project! It’s been a bit of a chore to photograph all these pots and load them in my store, but it will be so much fun to find homes for these funny little relics from the past. Happy time traveling!

As you might guess from the look of this delightful art bowl, I’m going nuts with the farting unicorn motif. There is a new section in my online store entitled, “Here’s where you can buy the Farting Unicorn pots!” and it’s chock full of really nutty pots that all have my trademark flatulent mythical beast. “Why?” you may ask. “WHY NOT?!” is my answer. Right now there are thirty-two separate pieces in this section. Some of them are stock items that we carry multiples of (electric car mugs, oil bottles, wine sippers and Christmas ornaments), but most are one of a kind artworks like the ones you see here. I really think this is some of the best work I’ve done in a long time. My new online store has inventory control which means that once a unique item sells, it’s gone. I’ve already had a couple of requests to duplicate items that have sold and I won’t be doing that with these pots. They are really time consuming to produce and I don’t want to have to go back and try and make another. My apologies to the desperate patrons. Below are some of my favorite pieces from my “crazy for unicorns” period. I really appreciate the fact that they are selling well. Thanks, fans!

The first wave these pots are out of the kiln and up for sale in the new, aptly named section of my store, “Here’s where you can buy my farting unicorn pots!” For sale right now we’ve got two versions of the electric car mug (the 2.0 model has a red Tesla in space!) and the “Tesla stole my unicorn” mug, platter and celadon wine sipper. Next week I’m doing a firing that has one of the most insane groups of pots I’ve ever done. Farting unicorns a-go-go, baby!